[lbo-talk] Bad Company

[andie nachgeborenen]

The WSJ today (Marketplace, B1) has a report about an
Al Qaida reader, featuring writings by bin Laden and
other luminaries; it's controversial because heaven
forbid the authors should be paid for their work, and
anyway, hwo would they get royalties? But what was
interesting is that the article says "[s]ome may
compare it to Hitler's 'Mein Kampf,' Marx and Engels'
'The Communist Manifesto,' or the . . . 'Turner
Diaries' . . . .

Apart from getting the title of Chuck & Fred's little
booklet wrong (it's 'The Manifesto of the Communist
Party'), it's striking that an acknowledged classic of
political theory of all time, whatever one may think
of Marxism, is stuck in with bin Laden, Hitler, and
The Turner Diaries, none of whom anyone has
associetied with theoretical acuity whatever their
historical importance. 

But what difference does it make -- it's all Evil,
especially the proposals for the progressive income
tax, the abolition of inheritance, the provision of
public education, and especially winning the battle of
democracy as the first step in the revolution -- and
worst of all, the theory of the Communist expressed in
a single statement: Abolition of Private Property! Now
there's the face of naked evil for you.

		
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